Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-26
THE PRISON INVESTIGATION

THE PRISON INVESTIGATION.
Warden McComb has demanded an in
vestigation into his conduct of the Folsom
State Prison. 1t is perhaps as well that
he has done 50, since certain sensational
newspapers have laid before the public a
series of extravagant charges made by
desperate convicts who are undergoing the
severe punishment of being locked in we'll
lighted and ventilated cells Except during
exercise hours and fed on the best prison
fare furnished in any penitentiary, because
they have repeatedly threatened and at
tempted to kill their jailers, or have def
antly broken the police regulations of the
prison, and refuse to promise obedience to
reasonable rules
Yet the affairs of this prison have been
so freely open to daily inspection; there
has been such remarkable publicity given
to all the details of its management, and
the coming and going of the public to and
into the prison has been so little INSTRUCTED,
and the examinations by the Board of
Directors have been SO frequent, that it
does seem that the expense of special in
vestigation is unnecessary.
There must be, of course, no secret in
QUESTIONS, no hidden dungeons with in
mates cut off from all possible hearing, no
cruel and barbaroHs punishment inflicted
The spirit Of the age and the humanity of
the law forbid them, and racks, thumb
screws,and methods of torture in our pris-
ons never can be tolerated. But that the
State should be put TO the expense Of
special investigation of its convict-keepers
upon the complaint of a handful of the
conviets, in order to advertise a newspaper
and to aid its boom for notoriety. is any
thing but agreeable.
The very fact that reporters were given
free access to the prisoners cells and wards :;
that they were permitted to come
and go in the ward for incorrigibles +"
and interview the conyicts without
being embarrassed by the presence of the
Warden or his Captains, is in itself one of
the strongest testimonies in favor of the
prison administration. Had there been
any reason to fear the eonvicts' charges.
the prison officials could have refused adj
mission to the ward for incorrigibles," or
have granted interviews only in the pres
ence of the Warden, and such procedure
would have been justified by many strong
considerations. The Prison Directors fire.
quently visit the State Prisons They
have complete control of these places, and
there is no barrier to prevent their vista
tons being thoroughly inquisitorial every
month.
In addition to these facts, the prison is
frequently visited by citizens from different
parts of the State, who see the convicts.
and who can have interviews with them at
proper times. Discharged men are con-
stantly coming out and mingling again
with the world, and there is nothing to
prevent them retailing accounts of any
barbarous practices in the prison
Under these circumstances it is wholly
improbable that there have been any such
eruelties practiced at Folsom as are
charged by the men in the :. incorrigibIe
ward The investigation that will prob
ably follow the Warden's request ought
10 be very searching, and such
publicity given to every fact
developed that there will remain no
shadow of a doubt in any mind as to the
exact truth. If the prison administration
cannot undergo searching inquiry of its
system, and its everyday and It's extraordi-
nary methods, then it ought to fall. The
RECORD MON has faith in the admins.
tratiOn at Folsom; its own inquiries lead
it to believe the stories of the ineor-
rigibles to be 6ctions, and the result OF
desire to pose in the sensational press
The truth is greater severity at Folsom
would be warranted there are desperate
men confined there for whom only the
minimum ef pity cen be entertained. They
are altogether teo we'll treated. If they
were IN some prisons, ineorrigibIes would
ind that solitary confipemeut there Is a
widely different and tenfold more severe
punishment than in the California peni-
tentiaries. They sonld find that ulen who !
attempt to kill their keepers get for tteir re-
ward residence in real dungeons ilnd ace not
served with the same food as the obe2ient
and working prisoners. They weald find
that the daily newspaper is not delivered
ut the cell doors, nor the sensational sheets
OF the day permitted to further poison their
minds and invite their exercise Of ability
to pose as injured innocents. They would
Ind that exercise" there often does not
mean freedom Of body and limb in long.
we'll lighted and ventilated corridor, but a | /
a'g-tro' IN narrow yard wi.iI all the men